But instead of needing a planet-sized wad of cash to be able to lock on to objects and move, the team from the University of Bristol have created their simplified tractor beam for less than the cost of all seven series of Star Trek: The Next Generation on Blu Ray.

The world's cheapest tractor beam (Image: SWNS)

Tractor beams are 'collimated' rays that can grab and attract objects.

The concept has been shown in science-fiction movies such as Star Wars - where they pull the Millenium Falcon into the Death Star - or lots of times on the Star Trek series

And scientists have even developed the theory using lasers.

These scientists have created a working tractor beam that can move heavier objects made of different materials and that operates both in air or water without damaging the trapped objects.

In the paper, published in Applied Physics Letters (APL), researchers from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, have shown that it is possible to build a simplified tractor beam using only one electrical signal and a passive wave modulator.

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The research team's passive wave modulator can be made in various different ways, and is a type of acoustic lens that can alter the transmitted or reflected waves.

For their budget raygun, the team used an off-the-shelf 3D printer to make the design on the cheap.

Asier Marzo, Research Assistant and the lead author, said: "The technique can generate an acoustic tractor beam using only a single electrical signal, this will reduce the cost and complexity of tractor beams making them a more affordable technology for manipulating and analysing levitated samples.

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"With our new research now everyone can have an acoustic tractor beam."

Bruce Drinkwater, Professor of Ultrasonics in the University of Bristol's Department of Mechanical Engineering, added: "The process is so simple that we have released a YouTube video with instructions that show people how they can build their own acoustic tractor beam step-by-step with components that can be bought on the internet for less than £70."

Previous work on tractor beams using sounds waves has opened up lots of applications for contactless handling - apart from just science fiction films.